sgmllib.py

[Dave Angel]

elsa wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm new to both this forum and Python, and I've got a bit stuck trying
> to learn how to parse HTML.... here is my problem
>
> I'm using a textbook that uses sgmllib.py for all its examples. I'm
> aware that sgmllib is not in the current release, however I want to
> get it to work, as I have python 2.5, and the text book uses it.
>
> So, the first example says to type something like (to test the
> sgmllib):
>
> python sgmllib.py "path/to/my/file.html"  .... example (1)
>
> this doesn't work for me. I think I have figured out the problem  -
> the error says
>
> "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Resources/
> Python.app/Contents/MacOS/Python: can't open file 'sgmllib.py': [Errno
> 2] No such file or directory"
>
> the problem is that this path is wrong. My sgmllib.py is in:
>
> "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/
> python2.5/sgmllib.py"
>
> if I substitute this path for sgmllib.py in example (1), everything
> works fine. However, I don't want to do all that typing everytime I
> want to use sgmllib.py. So, I thought maybe the problem was with
> PYTHONPATH. I executed the following command:
>
> export PYTHONPATH=/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/
> 2.5/li/python2.5:$PYTHONPATH
>
> this seemed to work - no errors raised. However, when I retyped
> example (1), I got the same original error.
>
> Any assistance would be much appreciated. I'm working on max os x
> leopard.
>
> Thanks,
>
> elsa
>
>   
The path in the error message simply refers to the full path string to 
your Python interpreter, and reflects %0 in your shell.  So I'd assume 
you've got a script called 'python' on your path, which spells out the 
full path name.

That has nothing to do with your problem.  Your problem, as you 
correctly surmised, is that Python's search path doesn't include the 
directory containing sgmllib.py

Unfortunately, I haven't used Unix for over 15 years, so I don't recall the specifics of the shell 'export' operation.  But you should be able to check the workings by inspecting the PYTHONPATH variable after trying to change it.

There are a number of places that Python looks for a .py file.  My choice, for a standard library like this that you don't plan to modify, would be to put it in the site-packages directory.  You can see exactly where that is by doing the following in a simple script, and examining the output.

import sys
print sys.path